Prompted by Nature

I absolutely love the Land Art Agency tagline, 'restoring the earth through the arts' - so much so that I thought I'd use it as a starting point for the writing prompt for this episode!

In this episode I give you some ideas as to how to might approach this.  Remember to check my social media feeds for the bullet journal prompt that accompanies this episode as there will likely be fresh inspiration there too :-)

Instagram: @prompted.by.nature

Twitter: @promptedxnature

Website: www.promptedbynature.co.uk

Happy creating!

Helen x

Welcome to series 4 episode 10 of the Prompted by Nature podcast.

Action point for this week: Join the #stopEAcop campaign, which is calling on global insurance broker, Marsh, drop the east african crude oil pipeline. You can find all the information on their website https://www.stopeacop.net/home They are having a day of online action on Tuesday 28th June.  Go to the series 4 episode 10 post on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk (you can find it in the podcast dropdown menu).

Onto the episode. This week, I’m thrilled to introduce the lovely Elizabeth Gleave to the podcast . Elizabeth is the founder of Land Art Agency, an agency that puts nature and the environment at its core to ensure that the creative industry’s great ideas can be executed in a sustainable way, both highlighting environmental issues and at the same time transforming the landscape in which they are created. I feel like the Land Art Agency is and does so much that its hard to encapsulate it in a snappy bio. Elizabeth talks a lot about it and how it came about so I’ll let her do the talking. Go to their instagram @landartcollective to find out more about what they do and the absolutely stunning creatives that they represent and support.

Just a little note that Elizabeth joined me from her cabin and was hot-spotting from her phone so there were a couple of instances where the reception cut out. I’ve edited it as best I can but no meaning is lost, I just wanted to let you know so you don’t think ‘oh! What was that?!’ when it happens!

You can find Elizabeth photography over on instagram @elizabeth.gleave and on her website www.elizabethgleave.com and Land Art Agency is @landartcollective and www.landartagecy.com where you can find the information about the Sustainable Futures residency plus talks and workshops. I’ve also popped the information about the artists we mention below for you to look up and enjoy! 

Alternative photography collective:  http://www.londonaltphoto.com 

Hannah fletcher:  https://www.hannahfletcher.com 

I would also highly recommend going to the shop on the Land Art Agency’s website as all funds go back to directly supporting the artists and their pioneering sustainable methods. Also look out for their upcoming podcast, which promises to be absolutely incredible and I can’t wait to listen!

One final note that Elizabeth mentions the mountain that was awarded personhood status in New Zealand but we couldn’t think of which it was. Well, I’ve done a little ecosia-ing and found the following:

New Zealand granted legal personhood to the Te Uruwera forest in 2014, and to the Whanganui river and Mount Taranaki in 2017. An Indian court granted legal personhood to the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in 2017, citing the Whanganui Act, and soon after Colombia awarded rights to the Atrato river.

As always, you an find me in the usual ways www.promptedbynature.co.uk, @prompted.by.nature on insta, @promptedxnature on twitter and (apparently!) @promptedbynature on Facebook!

Happy listening and I’ll speak to you soon!

Helen x

For this prompt, you are invited to ‘look to see,’ something Hannah speak about in the episode. I talk you through some ideas for what to do on a walk to you local green space or favourite natural spot, such as breathing and allowing your breath to bring you back into the present and looking at what’s around you with the aiming of ‘seeing.’

Some recommended guided meditations from previous writing prompts:

Episode 1.10b - Searching for Magic in the Landscape (my prompt for my conversation with Jini Reddy)

Episode 2.5b - Quiet Enough for Nature (my prompt for my conversation with Nick Hayes)

Enjoy and let me know how you get on if you use t his one!

Happy creating!

Helen x

www.promptedbynature.co.uk

www.instagram.com/prompted.by.nature

www.twitter.com/promptedxnature

Welcome to series 4, episode 9 of the Prompted by Nature podcast.

Today's action point:  Visit Hannah's website to find information and resources for connecting and protecting nature on your doorstep:  www.hannahbournetaylor.com/resources

Today I speak with writer and nature advocate, Hannah Bourne-Taylor.  After careers in both equine photography and copy-writing in the branding industry, Hannah moved from London to Ghana in 2013 where she lived for eight years. She has ghost-written and edited best-selling books and FLEDGLING, her debut memoir, is a celebration of the wild and is being published by Aurum in April 2022.

For context, before the main conversation Hannah had been telling me about the swallows she was trying to help after soffits were created during their migration south meaning that they couldn’t get back into their nesting spot.  Hannah heard about this on social media and got to work trying to help the birds.  I also told her about the Benfield Valley Project.  An update of the swifts situation is that since our chat, the landlord of the property involved has agreed to put up nesting boxes on the house that is their home.  I mention these points as we refer back to them in the conversation.

In this episode we discuss:

Recommended previous episodes to accompany this one:  Lucy Jones 1.9, Lorraine Tindale 2.3, Anita Bagdi 2.11, Lucy Groves 2.12, plus Sophie’s episode last week 4.8.

Find Hannah on her website www.hannahbournetaylor.com and @hannahbt on twitter or @writerhannahbt on instagram.  Fledgling is out now and is published by Bloomsbury.  I now have a shop over on bookshop.org, where I’ll get a little kick-back on anything you purchase through it.  This will help me to fund future episodes of the podcast.  The link is on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk, where you can find all episodes and upcoming course dates, or you can go directly to bookshop.org and search for ‘Prompted by Nature.’

In this writing prompt I invite you to get to know the species in your local area who might be on the conservation amber or red lists, or who may at threat of endangerment.  I go through the list of species that Sophie covers in her book, Forget-Me-Not, and offer up the possibility of using these animals as creative prompts for your own work.I also share a mindfulness practice that I like to use whenever my eco-anxiety comes to tea. 

I hope you enjoy - let me know how you get on if you use either of these.

Happy writing!

Helen

www.promptedbynature.co.uk

@prompted.by.nature

Welcome to series 4, episode 8 of the Prompted by Nature podcast! This week I’m thrilled to release my conversation with the lovely Sophie Pavelle, a Science Communicator, writer, and part of the Beaver Trust team. I came across Sophie a few years ago and have been wanting to get her on the podcast for a while. I love her creativity and the sense of fun that she brings to potentially challenging topics like climate change, environmental advocacy and wildlife and conservation issues. Sophie regularly works with past interviewee Nina Constable, who appears in series 2, episode 2, on the documentary Beavers without Borders in 2021 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK6qrCcVwacand ) more recently On the Edge, about making space for rivers in Great Britain ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJOpfHDuww8 )

Sophie is both humble and quick-witted and it was a joy to speak with her about her new book Forget-Me-Not, which explores the lesser-known species threatened by climate breakdown here in the UK. We discuss, amongst other topics:

In my eyes, Forget-Me-Not is a down-to-earth take on what can be very complex - not to mention scary! - subjects and I really feel that this is an important book in terms of the way in which Sophie makes these issues understandable to those of us who don’t necessarily know the ins and outs of how the natural world works as well as people new to the conversation and climate breakdown conversation. Sophie’s passion for nature and wildlife shines through and I really think you'll love both the book and this conversation.

Sophie is on social media @sophiepavs, where you can find links to all her work. Forget-Me-Not is available through Bloomsbury via your local bookshop, bookshop.org, hive.co.uk or you can ask you local library to order it in if they don’t already have it! Remember to support your indie bookshop, read the book and then post that all-important review on Amazon, which is a really good way of supporting writers without having to support a multinational conglomerate. I’ve popped direct links to these websites on the episode page on my website plus links to the documentaries I mentioned above.

As always, I’m @prompted.by.nature on Insta, @promptedxnature on Twitter and on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can find links to my substack newsletter, my buymeacoffee page, all episodes of the podcast, upcoming writing classes in Brighton and Hove, plus my own writing.

Remember to listen in to the writing prompt that follows this episode.

Happy listening and I’ll speak to you soon!

Helen x

In this writing prompt, I read a short extract of Ben's latest novel, The Perfect Golden Circle (pg 28) to get our creative juices flowing.  This prompt is all about seeing and feeling the heartbeat of the landscape around you - whether that's hills and mountains, the sea, or even a concrete jungle.  Nature is everywhere, sometimes we just need to look a little harder to find it.

A few idea to get you started:

Choose one aspect of nature, find something seemingly unrelated and connect them - perhaps, as in the extract 'the outlying hills are charcoal smears' - as if blended by an artist's hand; perhaps the crest of that wave reminds you of the candy floss you ate at the fair when you were five.  Maybe the bees don't buzz but hum a song to which only they know the tune.  Find the pulse in what's around you and think about how this particulate landscape can play a part in your creative work, a part that is wise, joyful, or even mischievous.

Let me know how you get on if you use this one and enjoy!  

Happy creating!

Helen x

www.instagram.com/prompted.by.nature

www.twitter.com/promptedxnature

www.promptedbynature.co.uk

Welcome to Series 4, episode 7 of Prompted by Nature.  This week I have the privilege of releasing my conversation with writer Benjamin Myers.  Ben Myers is a writer and journalist from Durham in the north of England.  I’ll let him introduce himself but his writing awards and accolades are intimidating - though well-deserved! - and his novel Gallow’s Pole is about to be released as a TV series directed by Shane Meadows.

We talked a lot about the novel The Perfect Golden Circle as well as Ben’s relationship with the land and I loved hearing about the ways in which he finds inspiration.  I really urge you to get hold of a copy of the book, via the library, your local bookshop or via bookshop.org and then post a glowing review of it on Amazon.  Time flew when I read the book and I think you’ll really love it.  I’ve also started reading Under the Rock, which is a non-fiction piece and is just beautiful so I highly recommend having a look at that too!

We discussed:

I am a bit gutted I didn’t ask him more about his own journey as a writer of a variety of genres but perhaps I’ll get to interview him again one day and ask him all the questions I didn’t get around to!

Before the conversation he told me that he’d listened to a couple of the other conversations on the podcast so I thought I’d recommend them as they both tie in nicely with this episode.  They were my interview writer Nick Hayes, episode 2.5a and my interview with land artist Rosalind Lowry, episode 3.7a and I also thought I’d link to another artist episode, which was 3.6a with Jamie Redway, who is an illustrator of the natural world and we have conversations around mindfulness and being out in nature as a creative practice.

You can find Ben on Twitter @benmyers1 and on instagram @benmyers76 and over on his website www.benmyers.com

As always, I’m on Instagram @prompted.by.nature and now on Twitter (let’s see how it goes!) @promptedxnature and on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can find all the link to all the things!

Remember to listen in to the writing prompt that follows this episode!

Happy listening and I’ll speak to you soon,

Helen x

In this prompt I give you four words to get you started on a creative piece.  I hope you enjoy it!  Remember to share anything you create with me either via my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk or on insta @prompted.by.nature

Happy writing!

Helen x

Today's guest is Georgia Wyatt-Lovell an artist, creative and the founder of Wyatt and Jack, a business that turns UK-sourced broken inflatables and deck chairs into the most beautiful bags!

Georgia studied ceramics at Chelsea School of Art before continuing her studies at Swansea uni. As we’ll hear, she started Wyatt and Jack when she found out what happened to deck chair fabrics and got inspired to try out turning them into something else.  Wyatt and Jack have been innovating since 2010 and Georgia runs the business with her husband Steve and Marianne, who does customer services.  Georgia handmakes each and every bag herself and stockists include the National Trust and The Barbican in London. W&J have collaborated with, amongst others, Surfer’s Against Sewage, Refuge, Coppa Feel, Lucy and Yak, the Royal Navy and Marines charity (recycling old life rafts!) and Surf Sistas and have been featured on the One Show, BBC News, The Metro to name a few.

This conversation doesn’t following the usual structure as we started talking really quickly and the conversation developed naturally - we ended up chatting for and hour and a half; we start mid-way through the conversation and we’ve already spoken about the need for open conversation in the climate movement and Georgia is talking about the need to choose where she puts her energy and her nerves around launching new collections.

There are a few swears so be aware of that if you are sensitive to that.

We discuss:

Georgia shares so many stories and anecdotes all of which outline her dedication to her work and creativity and I really appreciate how Wyatt and Jack as a company are driven by the designs and the innovation that comes with that and are solely focused on that.

Find Georgia over @wyattandjack on the socials plus on their website www.wyattandjack.com

As always I on insta @prompted.by.nature and on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk and you can buy me a coffee at www.buymeacoffee.com/promptedbynature

Please do rate and review.

Happy listening!

Helen x